Mass Effect Endwar: Story of Shepard
by SpiritsOfFire
Summary: Captain John Shepard finds himself alone and did some little review of his journey in the middle of a Turian invasion on not so same Earth. (one shot)
**So i've been cleaning some old story ideas/draft for my Mass Effect with a taste of Tom clancy's Endwar story among my documents and seeing this story. So well i've decide to finish the story and make it a one-shot.
** **Well, enjoy.  
And by the way, i'm changing my username from ShadowSpark121 to SpiritsOfFire . Why? i like it better**

* * *

Captain John Shepard lay down his XM9 assault rifle against a M5A2 "Schwarzkopf" main battle tank. After days of leading his company into heavy combat with those aliens, he appreciated the opportunity to sit down and rest from well, everything. And when resting, he likes doing what he do the best, which is thinking and analyzing, something that play quite a role to make him a captain. Looking at his rifle, John can't help but feel amazed of how technology progress these days. He can remember clearly the M4A1 he used at the boot camp and a few years later he is holding a brand new generation of assault rifle, the XM9. He appreciate the effort of the people at the R&D which improves the old XM8 and gives birth to the XM9. Accurate, not too heavy and able to fire the same bullet from the M16 family, the army is only too happy to accept this and planned to replace the remaining M4A1 and M16A4 with the XM9 and also introducing the new SCAR A1, which is rumored to have been fiercely fought in a huge amount of lawsuit to be able to be used by the personnel of the JSF, but John still prefers the XM9. Now if only the army has enough budget a while back, John thought. The DoD back then can't seem to acquire enough money every year and still have to fight every cuts in it's budget, but increase in tension around the world a few years ago sure ceased any of these cuts and honestly, he is happy knowing that every soldier at the US Armed Forces now have a real chance to be issued a XM9 in the next few years, not decades as the original plan.

The tension with the Europe and Russia did allow DoD to triple their budget though, John looks at the M5A2 and can't help but think when this effective war machine will be used by JSF tankers if the DoD hasn't been able to give DARPA the funding it needed. Built using nano composite amor, 120 mm BLOS gun firing HESH shell and Advanced Active Defense among other impressive upgrade the fourth generation tank just got. General Norman Schwarzkopf would be proud that the tank is named after him. The man is reowned for his schok and awe after all.

He is very glad that the US armed forces has upgrade nearly every single technology in their disposal. Auto aim sight for assault rifle for medium to long range engagement, the camo system that has been shared to more forces as the Ghost has finally come out of their own secrecy and share their tech, all those new UAV, John still like the Quad drone the most though, and the new UGV and other impressive things that DARPA and other civilian R&D has achieved. Maybe it's those things that give us a chance fighting those damn aliens, John thought.

He don't know how it happens and truthfully nobody knows what happens. It's a sunny day at a heated "peace" conference between the United States of America, European Federation and Russian Federation and moderated by the new G7 to try to stop a war after all those fiasco between them. Intelligence leaks everywhere, Spy uncovered everywhere, Assasination attempt on Russian President and Head of Spetsnaz Guard Brigade(SGB), Russian's incursion on UK, JSF black ops at Europe, and Europe's support for a private military forces trying stealing gold at what remains of the UAE. Truthfuly no one wants peace, but no one wants war either, with all those mess left after (or because of) the hunt for Snow Maiden and Ganjin.

Then the alien have to come. Suddenly, 6 space shuttles fly near the Buckingham Palace where the conference is held. After the alien request to land and have some word with the world leaders in ENGLISH, the almost panicked leaders then agree to meet the aliens. Meeting at the palace yard, the alien hand over some sort of earpiece to the world leaders and they start talking about something. And that's where the chaos happens, and what John hear after that is many rumors from many sources but he trust what his secret service friend and JSF briefeings say and he believes that it's the truth, mostly anyway. Explosions supposedly happens near the yard and the alien diplomat and world leader' security guard soon start aiming their rifle at each other while evacuating the leaders and honestly John still sure who but someone pulls his trigger and then it happens. Firefight ensues between the human security guard and Alien forces. The alien manage to push back and try to evacuate but JSF and Enforcer Corps' (EC) QRF prevent them from doing so and when they try to do it anyway the SGB's QRF come and fire some rockets and missiles at the fleeing shuttles and manage to down 1 while 5 other with varying degree of damage managed to escape. Why the Russians have those heavy weaponry anyway is the question John stil wandering but it's not that matter anyway. 10 dead alien soldiers and 25 dead security forces and QRF team (7 of them is from USA) becomes a symbol or proof of what goings to happens. War is coming to Earth.

At first John couldn't believe when he first heard the news, he kind of expects some sort of annihilation type of weapons from the aliens like the one in the Indepedence Day but instead the alien chose to invade the Earth, with USA is attacked from four directions when the alien lands on Florida, Illnois, Idaho and New York. The alien forces starts to rapidly advance from there, except in New York where the alien face extreme resistance for every inch ground they wanted to take on that city, the alien never heard of Stalingrad, John thought. But the alien still seems to be virtually unstoppable on the USA. Until the winter comes, interrogation from a Turian prisoner reveals that the Turian never expects to still fight at Earth when winter hits and subsequently their winter gears is still not issued to many troops and still waiting the delivery to the frontline. Realizing this, the US high command counterattack at Illnois when the first blizzard hits and while the Turian manages to hold out at first, they are unprepared for winter warfare and retreated to Bloomington. Europe and Russian soon follow USA's tactic and regain some land. John still feeling the goosebumps of that victory, his company is the one that take that prisoner after all. But alas when the spring come, the alien do a massive counteroffensive and the humanity is back on the defensive. John heard that Africa, Asia and South America is nearly conquered and glad his country is still holding on, he didn't know for how long it could though.

6 months into the conflict and John's Company has been battered as much as the USA. 20 casualties at the first month and reluctant deployment and some valuable experience is what prevents his company from being wiped out, that and his battalion's CO Colonel Michael Haney's brilliant leadership. But all in all only 50 of his original troops left, the rest of his company is replacements. And after previous operation at Chicago he needs some more replacements. The humans fought to tooth and nail there but the alien fought with advanced weapons there and John is amazed that the city haven't fall yet.

Maybe it because of those partisans, John thought. He heard that millions of American at the occupied territory didn't just sit back welcoming aliens ruler and form militia and gueriila groups ala Homefront and Red Dawn. He heard from the reports that the aliens didn't expect the human civilians to fight back and has to pull some troops from the frontline to deal with them. John hoped that General Mitchell's stay behind 3rd Echelon Startegic Homeland Division agents plan to raise resistance didn't backfire. God knows what brutal respons this aliens might have but he is glad that the enemy forces he face is reduced.

The alien has some sense of honor apparently, and maybe it's what stopping them for deploying brutal reprisal for the resistance. John have seen the reports that they take care of prisoners, treating wounded US forces and actually capturing resistance member instead of killing them instantly. He couldn't help himself but feel a little bit relieved that the enemy is not some brutal warmongering aliens, he always glad to face an enemy that play by the rules and not turn the US to another eastern front. But brutal is still in their military dictionary apparently, brutal efficiency of their troops. John never saw the aliens turn tails and run when retreat, instead they seems to always maintain order and John is awed at when he first saw this and when his 8th Assault Battalion chase them they almost ran into ambush, well actually they did but the drones detect and engage them first and save his battalion from ambush. John learn from that day that the alien forces are not just some regular army, they are the very definition of professional army, just like the Spartans.

That's apparently what keep humanity from winning many battle and force to retreat many times. But John really think that the high command has some sort of trick up their sleeves, he can't help but notice that many of the operation, at least in what he participate, seems to only delay the aliens. Cutting of spearhead forces, attacking supplies and avoiding pitched battles and only a few counteroffensive, John didn't undertand at all, well surely they can't win but it's that what the US armed forces only capable of? He still recall that the army at least didn't lost that bad, there's still millions of soldiers, tens of thousands of armored vehicle and artillery, surely they are capable of something more but after the little gain at the last counteroffensive next to Chicago, John sure can't blame the army, maybe it's his desire to fight the alien. The navy have been reduced to a shadow of their former self with only three carriers left and converted to C&C center at their base and some handful of escorts which the aliens seeking to destroy all the time after the navy destroys one of their cruiser and three frigates with a lot of tomahawk missile and new hypersonic missile. The submarine is mosly intact though, the alien didn't seem to able to engage in Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) and the navy use it as a hit and run vessel that destroy target with cruise missile all over the world and also to insert special forces personnel. The air force also suffer, after the attempt to gain some air superiority with the help of the navy air wing, the air force has lost almost half of it's aircraft and now hiding at secret airfield all over USA along with the remains of the navy air wing. The army at least can replenish their losses quite quickly with enlisted men and massive factories thanks to the war economy. Ships and Aircrafts understandably takes longer to assemble and John has heard reports that the Navy shut down and convert many of it's factories to focus on their submarine fleet and to support the army and air force ops. At least those admirals realize how easily surface combat ships can be sunk by those aliens and be a team player John thought.

John always likes seeing the bigger picture, that's why he knows all of that. He always likes to know what happens on other part of the front, at least what's been able to his request. The battalion S-2 actually seems pretty helpful to John, well maybe it's the perk of joining the special ops group. Better giving reports than rumor flying around damaging moral. The battalion S-2 apparently knows that and like giving John some intel from many times they talk, either when they meet through formal meeting or over their coffee talk.

John then shifts his attention to his men resting there with his XO, 1st Liutenant Robert Wright chatting with some platoon CO. Normally John would join but he likes enjoying some time alone every now and then and his subordinates undertand that. Well he just finished doing his regular round of check for his troops before resting here so he sure they wouldn't mind. Moral seems to pretty higher than John would though, sure he always tries his best to raise moral but he expects grim faces everywhere but he sees some of his troops chatting around and some even actually joking and only few grim faces of soldiers losing his/her friends and a few other squadmates tries to cheer or console them. John is happy knowing his troops is holding on , perhaps from all those experience in the special ops team. His team did not lose that much though, high command knew how valuable JSF soldiers is and they wisely didn't send them to some meat grinder like urban warfare and such. Maybe relatively few losses manages to keep together, or they try to keep a strong face for those grunts they fighting with. The 1st cavalry division they fighting with did got a lot of beating. John stops that line of thought immediately and assures himself that his company is strong and therefore has good morale and he is very glad that they did.

John then hears some footsteps coming towards him and he looks for the source of the sound and sees Captain Alexander Brent and his XO, 1st lieutenant Lakota. Captain Brent leads the only other infantry company in John's battalion and lead the rest of 40 ghost and 40 riflemen in the battalion. There's rumors that he and Lakota has some sort of relationship beyond professional one and more…. Intimate but with no evidence there's no proof of those one. Although based on their interaction in one of the intances John is with them at the Liberator Sports Bar and Grill, he has some suspicion but he redirect his attention when the captain called him.

"Morning John, doing some of your alone time?" Brent asked."The view is sure nice around here."

"Morning Brent, I'm just enjoying my day until you interrupt me. Is that the only reason you're here by the way?" John replied.

"Don't be mad John. You know I respect your personal boundaries, sometimes." Brent teasingly replied "Anyway Briggs called for a meeting for company leaders for an op, he says it's something big. Make sure your XO there too."

"Alright Brent, you go ahead. I'll join you later after I find Wright." John answered.

Brent nodded and then leaves with Lakota following him and leaving John alone again with his thought. Something big huh? He never heard Major Briggs, the battalion S-3 says "something big". If he says that then John knows that it is serious, and honestly he is curious of what the S-3 planned. He then proceed to stand up and calls his XO and joining the meeting with him. Well, whatever it is, John is glad that a big operation is brewing and he is eager to take part in it and fight those aliens again. After all, those aliens won't leave earth on their own.


End file.
